"The Appearance of Lord Varâha"

Skandham-3.1

Chapter-13.

Slokam- 1 to 50.

The Appearance of Lord Varâha

(1) S'rî S'uka said: 'After hearing Maitreya Muni talk about the most virtuous, o king, the best of the Kuru's who so adores the talks about Vâsudeva, further inquired. (2) Vidura said: 'O great sage, what did Svâyambhuva Manu, the king of all kings and dear son of Brahmâ do after obtaining his most loving wife so easily? (3) Be so good to tell me about the character of this saintly original king, o most pious one, as I am so eager to hear about that king who must have taken to the shelter of the harbor of Vishnu. (4) Persons who for a long time do their best to listen to that what is elaborately explained in the statements of the pure devotees will in their heart find the thought for the lotus feet of the Lord of Liberation'.'

(5) S'rî S'uka said: 'Speaking thus very modest he found the lotus feet of the marvel of energies and intelligence [the Lord] on his lap and had his hairs standing on end in the realization. Then the sage, inspired by the spirit of the words relating to the Lord, tried to speak. (6) Maitreya said: 'When Svâyambhuva Manu along with his wife had appeared, the father of mankind with folded hands and obeisances addressed the reservoir of vedic wisdom: (7) 'You are the one progenitor of all living entities, the father and source of subsistence, yet how can we, of all who are born from you, be of your service as well? (8) Give us, with all respect, to that directions about the duties unto you, o worshipful one, to our capacities of acting in this world as should be done for spreading the fame all around and the progress to the next world.'

(9) Brahmâ said: 'I am very pleased with you, my son, let there be all my blessings for the both of you, o lord of the world, because without any reservation of heart you surrendered your soul to me. (10) Precisely this way should offspring, o hero, for sure exercise respect unto its teachers; the sane of mind should to the full of their capacity, with great delight and free from envy, take instruction. (11) You therefore beget children of her that are alike yourself in quality, so that once born they can rule the world with the principles of humanity, sacrificing for and honoring the Original Personality. (12) Protecting the living entities you should see as the best way to be of my service, o king; with you as the guardian of their lives is Hrishîkes'a, the Supreme Lord of the senses, most satisfied. (13) The work of those who never satisfied the Supreme Lord Janardana [Krishna as the drive of man and], the object of all sacrifice, is certainly of no avail as they did not respect the Supreme Soul as their own self.'

(14) Manu said: 'By the order of your powerful self I will abide, o killer of all sin, please tell me what my place, and the place of the ones born from me, is in this world. (15) Because this earth immersed in the great waters [the Garbhodhaka ocean] is the dwelling place of all beings, o God of this planet, please let it be so that you try to lift it up.'

(16) Maitreya said: 'The one beyond [Brahmâ] who also saw that the earth was within the waters thought: 'How shall I lift it up?' and thus gave it attention mediating for a long time: (17) 'While I was engaged in its creation, the earth has been deeply inundated going down in a flood. What would be the right course of action for us who are engaged in this matter of creating? May the one from whose heart I was born be the Lord that directs me.' (18) While thinking thus from his nostril all of a sudden, o sinless one, a minute boar [Varâha], came forth no bigger than the top of a thumb. (19) Seeing Him in the sky suddenly that form verily, o son of Bharata, expanded into a wonderful gigantic body with the size of an elephant. (20) Seeing the form of that boarlike appearance, he with all the learned sons headed by Marîci and with Manu began to argue among himself in various ways: (21) 'What is this extraordinary being that pretends to be a boar? Oh how wondrous the fact that it came from my nose! (22) One moment He is just the size of the tip of a thumb and in no time he is as big as a monolith! Would this be the Supreme Lord of sacrifice Vishnu? I am baffled!' (23) While Brahmâ was thus deliberating with his sons, the Supreme Lord of sacrifice, the original person, made an enormous tumult. (24) Enlivening Brahmâ and the best of the brahmins, the omnipotent Lord with an heretofore unknown voice echoed from all directions. (25) When the great sages and thinkers as the inhabitants of the worlds of men, the saints and the truth heard the loud roaring with which the all-merciful Lord as a Boar destroyed all the lamentation, they all chanted from the three Veda's the all-auspicious mantras.

(26) Knowing Himself well as the expanded form of the vedic sound of all the knowledge of the great ones of truth, He again roared in response to the transcendental glorifications of the wise and intelligent and entered the water playing like an elephant to their benefit. (27) Slashing His tail in the sky and quivering with the sharp and hard hairs of His skin, He scattered the clouds with His hooves and with His glittering white tusks He radiated as the Supreme Lord and maintainer of the world. (28) Smelling after the earth, He who had assumed the transcendental body of a hog, was searching and showing His frightening tusks, although in spite of that all the brahmins engaged in prayer did not fear seeing His glancing them over while He entered the water. (29) That enormous mountain of a body from the force of the diving drove, creating two high waves, apart the ocean which, as with two arms in distress, cried out in prayer: 'O master of all sacrifices, please protect me from this!'. (30) Penetrating with His arrow-sharp hooves the water He found the limit of the unlimited and saw as the master of sacrifice lying there the earth, the resting place of the living beings, as from the beginning and personally lifted it up. (31) Getting up from the water raising the submerged earth with His tusks He appeared in his full splendor and held there glowing with a fierce anger His cakra [His disc-weapon or wheel] against the demon [Hiranyâksha - the golden-eyed one] that had rushed towards Him with a club. (32) He then in the water with his inimitable prowess easily killed the obstructive enemy just like an elephant does with a lion and had his cheeks and tongue smeared with blood the way an elephant looks from digging in the [reddish] earth. (33) Bluish as a tamâla tree while upholding the earth on His curved tusks like a playing elephant, o Vidura, the ones headed by Brahmâ could understand Him to be the Supreme Lord and consequently with folded hands offered Him prayers.

(34) The wise uttered: 'All glories and victory to You, o unconquerable one, who is loved by sacrifice and is the embodiment of the Veda's in person, all obeisances unto Him in whose pores of His body the sunken oceans undulate; our respects to the one who was motivated to assume the form of a hog! (35) O lord, for the miscreants this form of Yours is but difficult to see; that what is worshipable by sacrifice, the gâyatrî and other mantra's, is your touch; the hairs on Your body are the Kus'a-grass [on which one sits mediating]; the clarified butter [used in sacrifices] is as Your eyes and Your four legs are the four functions of sacrifice [see 3.12:35]. (36) Your tongue is the offering plate and your nostrils are another one, o Lord; in your belly we see the plate of eating and the holes of your ears are also such a plate; your mouth is the plate of the spiritual sacrifice and your throat is the plate for soma [a ritual drink], but that which is of Your chewing, o Supreme Lord, is what you eat though the sacrificial fire [agni-hotra]. (37) Your repeated incarnation is how you initiate, Your neck stands for the three desires [for relationship, activities and the ultimate goal] and Your tusks are the begin of You and end of all desire; Your tongue is the preparation, Your head the fire with as well as without sacrifice and for sure is Your life-breath the aggregate of all desires. (38) Your semen is the soma of sacrifice, Your stages of growth are the morning rituals, o Lord, Your flesh and bones are the seven types of sacrifice [see 3.12:40], the joints of your body are the different sacrifices one performs in twelve days; o Lord, You are the object of desire of all the soma and non-soma-sacrifices that bind. (39) Our obeisances unto You, who are worshipable by the universal prayers as the Supreme Lord for all the ingredients and types of sacrifice; You can be realized as the supreme of sacrifice by conquering the mind in devotion. You as the spiritual master of such knowledge, we again and again offer our obeisances. (40) With the earth and its mountains so beautifully situated on the tips of Your protruding teeth, o Supreme Lord of the uplifting, you came out of the water like an infuriated elephant that has captured a lotus flower with leaves by its tusk. (41) This form of a boar and the Veda personified, that now sustains the planet earth on its tusks, for sure is glowing like the peaks of great mountains that are beautified by the decoration of clouds. (42) For the residence of as well the moving as the nonmoving, You as a father uplift this mother earth as Your wife; along unto You, we also offer our respects unto this mother earth in whom You invested Your potency, like the sacrificial fire that is put in the arani-wood. (43) Who else but You, o master, could, from within the water deliver the earth. For You such acts are nothing wondrous as the wonder of the miraculous universe that You created from Your potencies surpasses all others. (44) When you as the Veda's in person was shaking your body, we as the inhabitants of the worlds of men, the saints and the truth were sprinkled by the drops of water that remained in the hairs of your shoulders and were purified, o Supreme Lord. (45) He who desires to know the limit of Your activities is certainly nonsensical; the oneness and potency of He who is of unlimited activities bewilders with its mystical power the total universe of the material modes; o Supreme Personality of Godhead, just grant us Your causeless mercy.'

(46) Maitreya said: 'Thus being praised by the great sages and transcendentalists did Lord Boar, the maintainer, place the earth on the water touched by his hooves. (47) He, the Personality of Godhead, lifted this way as the Supreme Lord and Vishnu, the earth and its creatures as a pastime from below on top of the water and then returned to His abode. (48) With the one who in a devotional attitude narrates to others this auspicious and worthwhile tale about Him who destroys the material motive, is the Lord either very pleased or will very soon in the heart become pleased. (49) The Lord pleased is of all benediction unto him and will give, of what is so difficult to obtain, all that, which standing apart from the service in devotion shows itself as insignificant gains; in the hearts of those who are of devotion He personally elevates to the supreme transcendental of His own abode. (50) Who in the world else than indeed the non-human being can, alas, go without the knowledge of the essence of the goal of life from all the histories of the past of the Supreme Lord; by drinking the nectar of these narrations through one's ears they put an end to all material pangs.

The order carriers of Lord Vishnu, who are worshiped even by the demigods, possess wonderful bodily features exactly like those of Vishnu and are very rarely seen. The Vishnudutas protect the devotees of the Lord from the hands of enemies, from envious persons and even from my jurisdiction, as well as from natural disturbances.